Dalton Day

More than 122,000 acres have burned statewide in 2025; Bear Gulch Fire in Olympics now exceeds 10,000 acres. LEAVENWORTH, Wash. — Fourteen large wildfires are burning across Washington state, consuming more than 122,000 acres this year as firefighters battle rugged terrain, shifting weather, and evacuation alerts. State officials report 1,602 total fires in 2025, with 122,301 acres scorched as of Saturday, according to the Department of Natural Resources. RELATED: Air quality improves to ‘moderate’ in King, Snohomish counties as rain creeps in In northern Washington’s Cascades, the Perry fire near Sedro-Woolley has grown to 1,477 acres. Firefighters are ferried daily by boat into the Little Beaver drainage to protect park infrastructure, while helicopters continue water drops. Steep, cliffy terrain has limited hand-crew work, though smoke inversions have moderated fire behavior. In central and southern Washington’s Cascades, the Pomas fire is holding at 3,533 acres with minimal creeping and smoldering activity. The Wildcat fire, burning in the William O. Douglas Wilderness above Bumping Lake, has reached 2,752 acres with no containment. Level 1 evacuation notices remain in effect for the Goose Prairie community, and the fire has merged with the Fish Lake and Swamp Lake fires. The Lower Sugarloaf fire near Entiat has surpassed 2,500 acres, with smoke visible from Plain, Leavenworth, Wenatchee and Entiat. Level 1 evacuations are in effect in parts of the Chumstick.  Near Cle Elum, the Labor Mountain fire is burning through brush and timber across 125 to 150 acres. Officials warn hot, dry weather could fuel more growth. Smokejumpers and rappel crews have been deployed into the steep terrain. On the Olympic Peninsula, the Bear Gulch fire has spread to 10,275 acres, making it the state’s largest active blaze. Minimal fire growth has been reported thanks to cooler winds and higher humidity, but closures remain in effect around Lake Cushman and within Olympic National Forest and Park. Evacuation orders are active near the Dry Creek Trail area, with nearby communities advised to be ready to leave.

Median home price flat at $650K; listings rose 31% from last year but buyer demand stayed sluggish despite easing mortgage rates. SEATTLE — Home prices across Washington state held steady in August while sales slowed, underscoring a housing market still grappling with weak buyer demand, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. The median sales price for residential homes and condominiums last month was $650,000, unchanged from July and less than 1% higher than August 2024. RELATED: Ferguson warns Trump tariffs could cost Washington 32,000 jobs, billions in revenue Active listings dipped 2.7% from July but surged 30.8% year-over-year, topping 20,000 homes compared to about 15,000 a year earlier. Despite the increased supply, sales slid. Closed transactions fell 7.7% from July and 5.7% from last year, led by slower activity in King and Snohomish counties. Demand remains stagnant, analysts noted, pointing to still-elevated borrowing costs. Mortgage rates inched down in August, with 30-year fixed loans dropping from 6.72% at the end of July to 6.56% by month’s end. “Pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower its overnight federal funds rate is expected to result in cuts later this year,” said Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington. “But it’s unclear whether such cuts will significantly affect long-term mortgage rates.” The Fed is widely expected to reduce its benchmark short-term rate later this month after Chair Jerome Powell signaled possible moves to offset slowing job growth. A weaker labor market report in July, with steep downward revisions to prior months, added urgency to the shift. The housing market has been sluggish since 2022, when mortgage rates began rising from historic lows. Sales remain soft in 2025 as rates hover above 6.5%, and most economists expect them to stay in the mid-6% range through year’s end. The Associated Press' Alex Veiga contributed information for this report.

Still ahead are extensions that will connect the park to The Beach at Expedia Group by summer 2026. SEATTLE — Seattle marked the end of 15 years of construction Saturday with the opening of Waterfront Park on Elliott Bay, a 20-acre, 17-block public space built where the Alaskan Way Viaduct once stood. City and community groups hosted Meet Me at Waterfront Park on Sept. 6, a ribbon-cutting followed by an all-day celebration with live entertainment, art installations and local food vendors. Seattle's Pier 58 park to open after years of transformation The $800 million Waterfront Seattle project rebuilt Alaskan Way between South King and Pike streets, added Elliott Way from Alaskan Way to Bell Street, and created a two-way protected bike lane and a waterfront promenade along Alaskan Way. The project also rebuilt Seneca Street between Western Avenue and Alaskan Way, and Columbia Street between First Avenue and Alaskan Way, with new parking, landscaping and lighting. The Elliott Way bridge now links the waterfront to Belltown, running from Alaskan Way near Pine Street to Bell Street with two vehicle lanes in each direction, sidewalks and bike paths. Still ahead are extensions that will connect the park to The Beach at Expedia Group by summer 2026. A coalition called Elliott Bay Connections — whose partners include Melinda Gates and the Downtown Seattle Association — plans to complete a new greenway trail between Waterfront Park and Olympic Sculpture Park. Also in the coming months, Urban Family Brewing Co. is set to open a 4,000-square-foot brewery with a 4,500-square-foot patio at 1022 Alaskan Way. That addition will bring the number of Seattle Waterfront businesses to 42, according to Bob Donegan, President and CEO of Ivar's. Donegan tells KING 5 that throughout the many years of construction and pandemic-related hardship leading up to the completion of the Waterfront Park, only four businesses shut their doors during that time. 

State scientists say federal draft report justifying environmental rollbacks is riddled with errors, from sea ice data to wildfire trends. SHORELINE, Wash. — Washington state scientists are rebuking a federal draft report that could be used to roll back environmental regulations, calling its science inaccurate and misleading. On Friday, the state Department of Ecology issued a formal condemnation of the U.S. Department of Energy report, which the Trump administration is using to justify revoking a 2009 government finding that climate change threatens public health and welfare. That “endangerment finding” underpins many pollution rules for cars, power plants and other sources. RELATED: Washington AG Nick Brown sues Trump administration over 'illegally withholding' climate funding The DOE report claims climate models have overstated warming, that long-term disaster trends show little change, and that climate has limited economic impacts. But state officials and outside experts say the document is riddled with basic errors. One example: the report stated that Arctic sea ice has declined about 5% since 1980. It cited a chart from the National Snow and Ice Data Center — but the chart tracked Antarctic ice. In reality, Arctic sea ice has shrunk by more than 40%. The Associated Press surveyed nearly 350 scientists cited in or familiar with the DOE and EPA documents. Of the 64 who responded, 53 gave the reports negative reviews. Only seven praised them. In a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller accused the department of omitting decades of peer-reviewed evidence and violating federal standards for scientific integrity. “This is not a game. Wildfire smoke, heat waves and drought are putting lives and livelihoods at risk here in Washington,” Sixkiller said. The DOE report also claimed U.S. wildfire acreage had not increased since 2007. But Yale climate researchers, using National Interagency Fire Center data, found the opposite: the 10-year average burn rose from 6.5 million acres in 2007 to nearly 7.6 million in 2024. “We’ve seen entire communities and homes burned down, and then many of the people in Washington have been affected by the smoke that lingers in the air for days, harming their public health,” said Jennifer Hennessy, special assistant to the Ecology director. “We know that downplaying those risks and those impacts is not helpful.” Washington is legally required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 45% below 1990 levels by 2030. Ecology officials warn that rolling back federal standards would make that target harder to reach. KING 5’s Tess Wagner and the Associated Press’ Seth Borenstein and Michael Phillis contributed to this report.

The drop in wait times comes as the Transportation Security Administration continues to simplify its screening process SEATAC, Wash. — Seattle-Tacoma International Airport says it has cut wait times at security checkpoints even as record numbers of travelers pass through the airport this summer. Airport officials reported average waits of 10 to 15 minutes over Labor Day weekend, with no line longer than 20 minutes. Year to date, 99% of passengers have cleared security in under 30 minutes, compared with 94% in 2024 and 80% in 2023. The drop in wait times comes as the Transportation Security Administration continues to simplify its screening process. In July, TSA began allowing passengers to keep their shoes on during security checks. Federal officials also said they are reviewing the longstanding restrictions on liquids, though the agency told KING 5 it is not ready to announce a change. Whether those changes are driving shorter waits at SEA remains unclear. It’s too early to say, an airport spokesperson said. SEA has invested heavily in its own infrastructure to ease congestion. In June, the airport opened a new checkpoint with five additional security lanes. Another redesigned checkpoint on the north end of the terminal is scheduled to reopen before Thanksgiving with six new lanes. At the same time, TSA has launched a pilot program to speed international travel. The program allows passengers arriving from certain foreign airports to bypass re-screening by TSA when connecting to domestic flights. The pilot currently applies only to flights from London’s Heathrow Airport to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. SEA is not part of the initial rollout. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she is rethinking “everything TSA does.” “Hopefully, the future of an airport, where I’m looking to go, is that you walk in the door with your carry-on suitcase, you walk through a scanner and go right to your plane,” she said in July. “It takes you one minute.” SEA has already set three new records this summer for its busiest day ever. Eight of the 10 busiest days in airport history have occurred since June, including Aug. 10, when 78,763 passengers went through TSA checkpoints. Overall, 207,000 people traveled through the airport that day, including departures, arrivals and connections. Dates over Labor Day weekend were not among SEA's 10 busiest days. Looking ahead, SEA plans to handle 56 million passengers annually by 2032 with a new terminal that will include 19 gates. Elsewhere in western Washington, Everett's Paine Field Airport is pursuing its own expansion. A draft plan calls for 12 additional aircraft gates and a larger passenger terminal footprint, with related construction expected to take three to five years. Editor’s note: KING 5 refers to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport by its official name, SEA. The airport officially rebranded in 2020.

After the mandate was announced in August 2021, nearly a quarter of the agency’s 192 firefighters requested exemptions. SEATTLE — A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling against Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue employees who sued over Washington’s 2021 COVID-19 vaccine mandate. In a decision released Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s finding that the agency could not reasonably accommodate eight firefighters who sought religious exemptions without creating an undue hardship during the pandemic. The firefighters alleged violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and Washington’s anti-discrimination law after Snohomish Fire required vaccination under then-Gov. Jay Inslee’s emergency proclamation. After the mandate was announced in August 2021, nearly a quarter of the agency’s 192 firefighters requested exemptions. Officials cited risks of staffing shortages, service disruptions, liability exposure and potential loss of contracts if unvaccinated employees remained in frontline roles.  Medical evidence also showed that masking, testing and distancing could not adequately prevent the spread of COVID-19 in firefighting and emergency medical work. The court referenced the high volume of medical emergencies that involve firefighters and EMTs. In 2021 alone, SRFR responded to 18,000 emergency calls, 85% of which were calls for emergency medical services. During that year, SRFR transported 6,866 persons to area hospitals. Snohomish Fire later negotiated an agreement with the firefighters’ union that allowed employees to use accrued paid leave, take up to a year of unpaid leave, and remain on a priority rehire list. The requirement was lifted in May 2022, and at least four of the plaintiffs returned to work, according to court documents. The lawsuit, filed later that year, argued unpaid leave was not a lawful accommodation. But the appeals court sided with Snohomish Fire, concluding that any alternative arrangement would have imposed a substantial burden on its operations.